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St. Elmo News

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, April 6
• St. Elmo Business Association, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club salad supper and membership drive, 5:30 p.m., St. Mary’s Catholic Church Parish Hall. Story teller Pam Chase will give the program. All women interested in becoming a member of the St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club are invited; but don’t take a salad – the meal is being provided by club members.
Friday, April 7
• Spring musical, 8 p.m., high school gym.
Saturday, April 8
• Spring musical, 8 p.m., high school gym.
Sunday, April 9
• Palm Sunday – attend the church of your choice.
• Wolf Creek Cluster United Methodist Churches Lenten service, 4 p.m., Funkhouser United Methodist Church, east of Altamont. The Rev. Dan Laack, pastor of the St. Elmo First United Methodist Church, will give the message. Refreshments will be served following the service.
• Sunday Night Live youth groups, 6-7:30 p.m.: high school in the Methodist Parsonage and grade school in the church Fellowship Hall.
Monday, April 10
• American Red Cross blood drive, 9 a.m.- 2 p.m., St. Elmo High School. All units collected count toward the high school scholarship program.
• St. Elmo Lions Club, 6 p.m., Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
Tuesday, April 11
• Fayette County HCE Get-Acquainted Day – registration at 9 a.m., potluck brunch at 9:30 a.m. After the brunch, there will be a program on birds and an auction of Make It-Bake It-Sew It- Grow It items.
• American Legion Post #220, 7 p.m., Legion Home.
• Fayette County Board, 7 p.m., Fayette County Courthouse, Vandalia.    
Wednesday, April 12
• Reverb Youth 56, 5:30-6:30 p.m.; Reverb Youth 78, 6:45-8 p.m., St. Elmo Christian Church.
Thursday, April 13
• Today is the start of the school spring break.
• Fayette County Extension Workshop sponsored by Fayette County HCE and U of I Extension for 4-H ages 8-18, 9-11 a.m., Vandalia Extension Office. Youth will make two pillowcases, one to donate to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department and one to keep. Cost is $5; to register, call 283-2753.
• Lunch Bunch, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• University of Illinois Extension open house, 2:30-6 p.m., at the Effingham Extension Office, 109 Wenthe Drive, to meet and greet with Kimberlee Kidwell, dean of U of I College of ACES. See more info at the end of these announcements.
• Maundy Thursday service, 6 p.m., First United Methodist Church.
• St. Elmo Public Library District Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library
• Effingham Chapter #110 Order of the Eastern Star. 7 p.m., Effingham Masonic Temple.       
Open House for New Dean of U of I College of ACES
U of I Extension Director Carl Baker, who serves Clay, Effingham, Fayette and Jasper counties, extends a invitation to meet Dr. Kimberlee Kidwell, the new dean of the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences with the University of Illinois. Kidwell is the first female dean of any College of Agriculture.
From 2:30-6 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, at the Vandalia Extension Office, Kidwell will be available for questions and answers,
The open house also will be celebrating the 150h anniversary of the University of Illinois, a land grant university created by the Morrill Act of 1862.
During the open house, you will have a chance to meet the U of I Extension staff and learn more about the programs offered and how they can better serve residents and the communities they live and work in. Each Extension program will have hands on activities for you to interact with the staff.
For questions, Baker can be contacted at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/CEFJ.
Engeljohn’s 80th Birthday Open House
Almost 200 attended the 80th birthday celebration of Donnie Engeljohn at an open house held the afternoon of March 26 at the St. Elmo Fire Station. In the spring of 1951, Richardson Brothers Greenhouse had a fire, and he helped and became a fireman – that was 56 years ago. Also, 56 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1951, he married Norma Albright. He previously, for many years, has been the fire chief.
One of their sons, Doug, is now the fire chief. He and his wife Shannon and their children, Dawson and Darcy, live in St. Elmo. Their other son, Daryl, lives in Belleville and their daughter, Dona Engeljohn lives in Wichita, Kan.; her children are Taylor of Wichita and Dillon and wife Katie of Beatrice, NB.                            
Those present included cousins, nieces and nephews; Norma’s brother and sister-in-law, Charles and Mary Sue Albright of Springfield; her sister, Karen White of LeRoy; and a sister-in-law, Darlene Albright of Kokomo, Ind. One of the relatives came from Pennsylvania.
Refreshments included a decorated cake, cupcakes, cookies, pastry, nuts, fruit, punch, etc.
Fayette County HCE Member Now an IAHCE Officer
At the annual conference of the Illinois Association of Home and Community, Ashley Davis of St. Elmo, a member of the Vandalia Day Unit, was elected to the office of certified volunteer hours/sales.
The conference was held March 14-16 in East Peoria. Davis won over Rita Overacker of Kankakee County.
Home Bureau was organized in 1948; it became known as Homemakers Extension Association in 1962, and in 1996, it became Home and Community Education. This is the first time a Fayette County member has been on the state board of officers,   
The 305 attendees from 59 Illinois counties included 103 voting delegates; those from Fayette County were Donna Blair of the Bingham/Ramsey Unit and Debbie Segrest of the Vandalia Day Unit. Also attending were Davis and Phyllis Pryor of the Sefton Unit.
Fayette County received a certificate for helping with the Effingham human trafficking awareness program last fall.
The March Fayette County HCE Board met the morning of March 27 in the Vandalia Extension Office, with the following board members present: President Flo Allen and Panzi Blackwell of the Sefton Unit, Ashley Davis, Joyce Mueller, Anita Smith and Debbie Segrest of the Vandalia Day Unit, Donna Blair of the Bingham/Ramsey Unit and Anna Jean Rhodes of the St. Elmo Unit. Also present were Phyllis Pryor of the Sefton Unit and Heather Davis of the Vandalia Day Unit. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Second Vice Rhodes reported that the county membership now is down to 106. The second oldest member in the county, MaryEllen Lovett, 103, of St. Elmo, died on March 25; she had been a member of the Wheatland Unit since 1951 and was third in the county with the longest membership. A $15 memorial for her was made to the Fayette County Extension Foundation.
Those who attended the conference gave reports on the various workshops, activities, etc.
The 2018 annual conference will be back in Effingham and the date is March 13-15.
The Fayette County Extension Foundation appreciates the Fayette County HCE members who made desserts for the Extension Foundation fundraiser on March 26.
Next Tuesday is the annual Get-Acquainted Day and will be in the St. Elmo First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall; registration is 9 a.m. and the potluck brunch is 9:30 a.m. After the brunch, Michelle Satherwaite of Vandalia will give a program on birds, Blair will present awards to those who turned in volunteer hours, winners of the unit door prizes will be announced and then the Make It-Bake It-Sew It-Grow It items will be auctioned. This is the annual fundraiser for the County HCE.
Old blue jeans can be taken to the Get-Acquainted Day; they will be used to cut out slippers for Uganda children.
Thursday, April 13, is the Fayette County 4-H/HCE sewing day to make pillow cases for abused children and they will be given to Sheriff Chris Smith.
Following the Monday, April 24, board meeting at 10 a.m. in the Vandalia Extension Office, the past and present officers will meet at 11:30 a.m. at Old Capitol View Restaurant in Vandalia for the annual spring fellowship.
Wednesday, April 26, Fayette County HCE members who made reservations will go to the Effingham Extension Office from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. for a Japanese program and lunch. Several are making reservations. The $5 has to be paid by April 19.
Saturday, April 29, the Fayette County HCE-sponsored child abuse awareness Program is from 1-3 p.m. at the Vandalia Northside Christian Church. There will be several speakers. Punch and cookies will be served during a break.
Other future announcements: The annual Fayette County HCE meeting has been set for Thursday, June 8, at the Vandalia Northside Christian Church, and the HCE District 6 meeting will be on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at Effingham.
After the board meeting, Allen, Ashley Davis, Heather Davis, Pryor, Rhodes and Segrest ate lunch at Old Capitol View Restaurant.
Lions Club
President Dave Maxey opened the Mar. 27 Lions Club meeting at Mary Ann’s Restaurant with the Pledge of Allegiance, and Pee Wee Denton led in prayer. Last minute details for the senior defensive driving course were discussed.
The club’s annual Easter egg hunt will be at 2 p.m. on Easter Sunday in Deken Park.
On May 13, members of the club will be at strategic locations in St. Elmo to distribute material on diabetes awareness.
After the meeting adjourned, members went to St. Elmo Christian Church to help setup tables, chairs and other necessary items for the class.
In addition to Maxey and Denton, the 20 members present included Charles Brubaker, Dave Cox, Don Crawford, Roger Fulk, Skip Heaton, Max Hollinshead, Holly Huffer, Dan Laack, Mark Lash, Bob Lowe, Richard Lowe, Al Nevergall, Dee Newberry, Rex Reeder, Lloyd Stanley, Bob Wells, Will Williams and Randy Wolf.
Senior Defensive Driver Training
The St. Elmo Lions Club sponsors the AARP Senior Defensive Driver Training Course once or twice each year for adults age 50 and over. No other Lions Clubs in the area sponsor the course. Dave Maxey is an excellent teacher for the course.
It was held March 28 and 29, from 8 a.m.-noon each day, at the St. Elmo Christian Church Fellowship Hall, and the 36 enrolled were from Effingham, Mason, St. Peter, Beecher City, Altamont, Brownstown and Vandalia in addition to St. Elmo.
Mona Stanley, wife of club member Lloyd Stanley, was at the registration Tuesday—members of AARP pay $15 for the course and non-members pay $20.
Certificates were given at the end of the course and a copy is to be taken to the person’s car insurance company; most of the companies give a discount on the annual premium. To get the discount, the course needs to be taken every three years.
Donuts, coffee and orange juice were provided each day.
Lions Club members who assisted each day were Pee Wee Denton, Al Nevergall and Dee Newberry.
Fifth Lenten Service for Wolf Creek Cluster UM Churches
Haley Chapel UM Church was host April 2 to the fifth Lenten service for the Wolf Creek Cluster of United Methodist Churches.
After the piano prelude played by Mary Halford, Don Sidwell gave the welcome greeting and Pastor Dave Arnold gave the opening prayer.
After the congregation hymn, “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story,” the offering was taken by John Hakey of Haley Chapel and Ed Wojner, pastor of the Altamont Circuit churches.
The special was ”Lord, I Need You,” a piano solo by Halford.
After Arnold gave the Lenten message, the hymn “Down at the Cross” was sung by the congregation. Wojner closed with prayer.
The attendees were invited to the basement fellowship area for a variety of refreshments.
 

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